Original post 8 July 2020
This grand building for the ‘Australian Church’ once stood on #FlindersStreet near Spring though – the 1887 sketch is all I knew of it, and I wondered if it had ever been built. Then @heraldsunphoto_retro popped up with a great photo from c1900, showing it next to Griffiths Teas, and then I found another blurry one, same period, so it was in fact built, but without the tower tops. The church was established by Reverend Charles Strong, forced out of Scots Church for his liberal views in 1885, so he formed the Australian Church, and they quickly raised enough to buy the site and build this church for 2000 people in 1887, designed by #WilliamSalway. It’s very unusual for a 19thC melb church, which are nearly all Gothic; this one is far more Italianate, with towers like those on a mansion, and an unusual portico- I suppose they wanted to be different! In 1922 having shrunk a lot they sold up and converted a factory in Russell St, which later became the Russell St theatre, then folded in 1957. Meanwhile the church was completely rebuilt into a garage for Cheneys Motors, leaving only parts of the towers (last pic c1972), itself demolished for the Shell building in the late 80s. Last 2 pics State Library Victoria.
Storey of Melbourne 
The modification of the church building turned it into Cheney’s motorcar showroom downstairs but was it a theatre above?
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No the building they moved to in Russell street later became a theatre – I’ve edited to make that clearer.
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